Review: Renowned Explorers International Society

Renowned Explorers: International Society is a turn based, single player strategy game that takes on some really new and interesting ideas.

RE:IS is different enough that it gets a little complicated to try to describe. It's a turn based strategy game with role playing elements and a technology tree. The game has roughly five rounds each time and the goal is to select your crew of three people and explore the world seeking treasures while gaining "renown" so that you can attempt to be the world's most renowned explorers. The limit of just five rounds, or expeditions, means that the game is always relatively short - perhaps an hour of gameplay. You really cannot do very much to extend it beyond that. The game is meant to be played over and over again.

Much of the gameplay comes down to the selection of your crew and how you choose to deploy the unique talents of each of your crew members. This makes for some truly different gameplay that you will not be used to. You spend much of your time figuring out how your team works together and how they will interact with others. Your characters get stronger as you progress, as well, and you can chose how they advance within their skill sets.

The game has some interesting story telling, but it is pretty limited. Each mission has a few story elements to explore and the story is interesting, but there is only a few minutes worth of story in each mission and only a handful of missions. Three or four times playing and you will likely have completely exhausted all of the storytelling in the game. This is a little annoying as the story still takes time, but it gets boring as you've seen it all before. Each playing of the game is the same intro and the same ending with only minor deviations in the middle. This isn't a huge problem as the game is a strategy one, not a storytelling game per se but the little story telling that is there is good and there is a lot of potentially for it to have been much better.

Similarly, the number of locations in the game are very limited so the replay value comes almost completely from the random encounters and the different mixes of crew capabilities. More story, more variation and more locations would have done a lot to make the game seem fresher, longer. There is one DLC expansion already available and more on the way, we hear, and I am sure that this will help, but adds significant cost.

Overall the game is well made, interesting and a fresh, unique bit if gameplay. If you like strategy games and want to try something new, this might be the title for you.